By Ebunoluwa Sessou
Across the globe, millions of girls face challenges that hinder their access to education, healthcare, and basic human rights.

According to UNESCO, as of 2023, 129 million girls are out of school, a staggering figure that highlights the deeply rooted inequalities in educational access. The crisis is particularly alarming in sub-Saharan Africa, where cultural barriers, poverty, and insecurity disproportionately affect girls.

In Nigeria, 10.5 million children are out of school, with more than 60 percent of them being girls. For these girls, education is often interrupted by early marriage and the pressing need to contribute to their family’s survival.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, 45.7 percent of girls in Northern Nigeria are married before the age of 18, often marking the end of their formal education.

For many girls in Nigeria, education is either interrupted or inaccessible, leading to a vicious cycle of early marriage, lower literacy rates, or limited economic opportunities.
Aisha was one of the many girls whose dream was almost derailed by the harsh realities of poverty.

Raised by her 75-year-old grandmother in Ilorin, Nigeria, Aisha spent her days selling sachet water in the bustling markets to help support her family.

Every day, she balanced a tray on her head and shouted through the crowded streets, hoping to earn enough to make ends meet. Despite her academic potential and desire to become a doctor, her education was nearly cut short due to her family’s financial struggles.

Aisha’s luck changed when she received a scholarship from Oando Foundation. Through their flagship programme, the Adopt-a-School Initiative, Aisha was able to further her secondary school education and excel as one of the top students in her class.

Reflecting on her journey, she says, “I will be forever grateful to Oando foundation. They gave me this second chance.” Her story is a testament to the power of education support in transforming lives, even in the face of adversity.

Since its inception in 2011, the foundation, an independent charity dedicated to supporting the Nigerian government in achieving its Universal Basic Education goals, has emerged as a key advocate for the educational empowerment of girls in Nigeria. Its interventions are designed, in part, to address the multifaceted challenges that girls face, ensuring they have equal opportunities to access quality education.

Through its Adopt-a-School Initiative, the foundation has taken bold steps to get girls back into classrooms, especially in Northern Nigeria, providing scholarships to outstanding young girls in their adopted schools, building WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) facilities to ensure a healthy learning environment, offering mentorship opportunities, training female teachers and sensitizing community gatekeepers to inspire confidence, hope and support.

The Oando Scholars Programme awards scholarships to the best-performing final-year students from adopted schools to ease their transition to secondary, and in some cases tertiary education.

This award covers tuition and associated expenses, including transportation, study materials, and uniforms. Over 600 female scholars have emerged from this program, constituting about 60% of the total beneficiaries of the scheme.

The foundation has enrolled 31,867 girls back to formal school, in collaboration with relevant state agencies and School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs); providing them with the necessary support to sustain their educational pursuits.

In addition to financial support, the foundation works to create a safe and healthy learning environment by building WASH facilities in schools. By providing clean water, proper sanitation, and privacy for menstruating girls, the Foundation is addressing the factors that often lead to absenteeism among girls. Safe spaces and female mentors support the socio-emotional needs of the girls for better outcomes.

The foundation is also committed to empowering young girls through STEM education. In partnership with TheirWorld UK, Oando Foundation equipped 120 girls with vital technology skills through a Code Club aimed at fostering their academic interests and advancing STEM education among girls.
This is in line with their current LEARNOVATE strategy which focuses on utilizing innovative approaches to improve the learning outcomes of pupils and equipping them with the knowledge and skills to survive in our 21st century world.

In commemoration of this year’s International Day of the Girl Child, Oando Foundation joined the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Federal Ministry of Education (FME), and other development partners at the two-day International Conference on Girl Child Education, aimed at addressing key issues of education access and quality most critical to the girl child in Nigeria.

Speaking during the event, the Programmes Manager at Oando Foundation, Tonia Uduimoh, highlighted the Foundation’s ongoing efforts to promote girl child education; emphasizing the need to enhance education financing, accountability mechanisms to help monitor progress and sharing of best practices among stakeholders to scale impact.

Also moderating a high-level panel on “Girl Child Education Intervention Strategies: National and Sub-national Partnership for Quality and Inclusive Skills Development in the States.”, Tonia, alongside Commissioners of Education from Enugu, Edo, Bauchi and Rivers States examined effective strategies to enhance girl child education in Nigeria, identifying key challenges, and proffering state-level as well as partner-led programs bridging the inclusivity gap. Highlight of the event was the unveiling of Girl Child Education Ambassadors and the Girl Child Education Advocates, both significant steps toward advancing girl child advocacy in Nigeria.

In line with this year’s International Day of the Girl Child, themed “Girls’ Vision for the Future,” the Oando Foundation continues to champion initiatives that empower girls and create pathways for their success. Through sustained advocacy and targeted interventions, the Foundation is committed to breaking the cycles of inequality, exclusion, and stereotypes, thus enabling girls to envision and achieve brighter futures.

Vanguard News